Thank you Jennifer. I discovered something while painting 'Life is good' that made my inner man do back flips. Will post that update tomorrow. Maybe, if I don't get called back to 'Life is good II' first. BBQ done well, having left overs tonight. Hope your evening leaves with the feeling that it has been a good day.

OK, now posting the next step. I am calling these steps as each mark a point where I have to quit and do the thinking thing before I proceed with the painting. Pausing and thinking for an hour or two or day or week actually is faster for me than blasting through and having to go through re-do's or throwing it away and starting all over. Elizabeth, see the pedals in the upper right corners of the flower facing you? The pedals are painted in by laying a paint loaded small round brush with a twisting or spinning of the brush in the direction of the pedal edge. It gives it that sharp color separation between the background and the surface of the pedal. It adds depth and texture from the paint varied levels created by this technique. There is no mistaking that this is a painting. It is the varied depths of the paint that makes light bounce around on the painted surface. That is what made my inner man do back flips. It makes me not disregard Still Life's so much. I think I can pull this one in making it have a static vibrancy worth looking at and enjoying the experience. Maybe. Have a long way to go for that. But the painting has now told me what it wants to be. Life is such a hoot!

Almost done. I think all I need to do now is the lettering in the label and my signature. Think my opinion about doing still life is changing. Thanks Frank for posting you last one. It was an inspiration as well as a work to study.

Started to work on Life is Good II. I am calling this a step because I am taking a think break and thought I would post this in process change. I have no idea how many think breaks this one will take. Learning a lot.

the grapes/wine and roses painting is coming along great.... what stands out to me is the texture difference in the brush strokes on the roses vs, the fruit... the fruit have been blended down, whereas the roses are still a bit rough for my liking... maybe that is me and possibly Im a bit torn...I envision roses as soft and velvety, but I also like the slightly impressionistic approach... perhaps marrying the two in a fashion with hit the mark.

for the flower/vase painting... this is coming along as well... I cant wait to see it when the cylindrical shapes have more depth and form... it will really pop then!!!

Thank you Jennifer. I will be posting some updates tomorrow. These paintings are coming along slowly. Life is Good painting is based on a staged setup I took a photo of then used the grid method to draw it on a canvas. Life is Good II went straight from my mind to the canvas via my hand. Don't know which one will turn out better, or not.

Yes. It is now finished and framed. Comments, critiques and observations are welcome if anyone chooses to do so, or not. I just hope you enjoy viewing this painting. Moving on. Going back to work on Life is Good II now as I haven't figured out the problems I have boxed myself into on the Selling Jewelry at the Governor's Palace just yet. I think I may have to cut my finest brush a whole lot thinner, maybe. Still deciding how fine or rough I want this painting.

P.S. I did think about shadows but decided not to do it because, one, it would have been a step closer to realism than I wanted to take. It is a knife's edge to walk that line between realism and abstraction. And, two, I did not want to change the eye movement directionality of most viewers. Current eye movement is first at the Glass then to the center flower. If you are right handed your eye will move up and to the right, then down, then to the bottle label, then to the grapes, then wander about, then do it all over again. This viewing will take less than three seconds. If you are left handed, you will start at the glass, jump over to the bottle label, down to the grapes and then up to the flowers. Same time frame.

Adding table shadows forces the eye to move in the direction of those shadows thereby destroying the initial spontaneity of the first look. Keeping the quality of spontaneity of first look at a still life is what I am thinking makes a still life have life. Most people always look at a painting exactly the same way each time based on their first view. To me, a painting is far more than just a picture hung on the wall. So, again, I hope you enjoy viewing this effort.

The warmth and personality of fruit and flowers areworth saving. You could revive this Southwestern beauty by leveling bottom of the clay vase,straightening the ''gleam' on the right side of your wine glass and perfecting the type on the wine label.That type the way you have it now marrs the whole look. Go ahead and white that out and first, 'pencil in'the type to make sure it looks right. Just a few little changes...Great piece. E